Moving Right Along

I drove by the house the other day and noticed a Sal's Granite and Marble truck out front.  That could only mean one thing...COUNTERTOPS!!!

I really like how the kitchen is turning out.  The island countertop is granite that looks similar to Carrera marble.  I didn't trust marble with the family eating at the island daily.  It just seemed like too much maintenance with a young family.  The back countertops are my favorite!  We are so glad we splurged on them.  They are a black leathered Brazilian granite.  They have this great texture to them as well as flecks of gray in it to pull in the island color.  

This is my new kitchen sink and faucet.  I can't tell you how long I've wanted this look in my house!  I LOVE it!

If you click on this picture, it will enlarge so you can see it better.  This shows the kitchen with the doors and drawer fronts on the kitchen cabinets.  I can't wait to see the wood floor stained to get a better look at the entire room.

This is our new laundry room.  I've been wanting a countertop over my washer/dryer for years now.  If we had stayed in Utah, Andy and I were going to build something similar over my units.  I'm excited to be able to fold, stack, etc. on top of the washer/dryer and not lose socks behind the dryer, etc!

Here's a better look at the entire laundry room.  I love all the storage we'll have in this room!

My new tubby!!!  Think anyone would notice if I snuck over and soaked in it at night?!?  I can't wait to use this new tub and see the faucet installed!

I love all the natural light that will come in through the big window at the tub!  The window will have plantation shutters for privacy, but the light will still be great.  

 This is our master vanity...The color is a little less red than it shows here - hard to get good lighting because none of the lights have been installed yet.  This cabinet and countertop look awesome with the tile flooring we chose!  Can't wait to get the entire picture!

This is the downstairs bath vanity.  We are so pleased with the way this room is turning out too - especially since we picked out flooring, granite and cabinets all at different locations!  

Things are moving right along now, thankfully.  We'd like to try to move in the beginning of April.  We are hoping the timing works out so we can move out of the apt before our year lease is up and we end up paying more in rent to go month to month.  When people ask about our house, I use the analogy of being 8 months pregnant...You just can't wait for it to be over and start the next chapter.  That's how this feels.  We are getting so close, but still have about 2 months to go.  At least the big changes taking place help us see the light at the end of this year long tunnel.

Special Moments

Tuesdays are a special day for me and Sissy.  Ra has Bricks4Kidz after school so she and I have an hour together before we have to go back and pick him up.  Yesterday we went to check on the progress of the house and then headed to Cinotti's for a sweet treat.  We enjoyed our donuts together.  Her sweet little heart felt bad that Ra was missing out so she asked if we could get something for him to bring home so he could have it later...Love her.

Things Only Utahns Would Understand

This is HYSTERICAL!  I loved reading all of these items.  So many are unique to Utah!

Things Only Utahns Understand

Here are a few more that I thought should have been on the list:

Sad, but this is VERY true.  If you wanted to be able to breathe in the winter months during an inversion, you needed to head up one of the canyons.  This looks like Little Cottonwood Canyon.  I'd have a killer headache in the valley, drive up to ski and my headache would disappear until we got home, then it'd set in again...Ugh!  I don't miss that!

Another sad but true Utah situation.  Every summer at least one or two scouts would get lost or sadly even die while at scout camp.

Oh my...Genealogy is such a big deal in Utah.

So many places are closed on Sundays in Utah - every store is like Chick-fil-A!

Only in Utah would a church share a parking lot with a restaurant!

Yep - I've seen signs like this one!

In Midway, they would host a big gingy house contest and there was usually something church related there.  I thought I was crafty until I moved to Utah...home of the Cricut and the Silhouette!

If you think we are Disney people, Utahns think Disneyland is the best place EVER!  They go all the time!

So true!!!  Everyone there has blonde hair and most of it isn't natural!  Kendall fit in perfectly with her blonde hair and blue eyes!

These were a fun walk down memory lane of our 4 years in Utah.  As much as I was happy to get back on the east coast, I do miss some of things that makes Utah unique and a special place.  It's like no other place I've ever lived.  Utah is one of the most beautiful places - the landscape is breathtaking!  There will always be a special place for us - a lot of our kids' firsts happened in Utah.  

Most Exciting Suburbs in America!

According to THIS article, Jax Beach made the Top Ten list coming in at #7!  Whoo Hoo!  I love Jax Beach.  It's been a great transition place for us to live.  Don't get me wrong, Atlantic Beach is the ultimate destination for this family and conveniently, Neptune Beach and Atlantic Beach both tied for the #21 spot!  No surprise there since the Beaches Town Center falls in between the two locations!   I'm just happy to live on the island and feel the salt air and to live in such an exciting place!!!

Business Insider  has the article if you want to read the criteria to decide the best suburbs.  Cambridge and Quincy ranked #1 and #2 - and I'd have to agree, I love the Boston area.  Berkeley was #3 and Miami Beach #4.  Santa Monica was ranked #5.  Those are a pretty big top 5 cities to even be considered in the same category!

The Greatest Show On Earth!

For once, being a RR family has had a perk that our family could take advantage.  We were offered free Ringling Bros circus tickets.  The entire family had a great time and loved all the entertainment.  We haven't gone to the circus since we lived in Jax before - about 5 years!  

Here are the world famous RB elephants!

8 motorcycles in the ball!  Wow!

Here's a video of the motorcycles:

We had a great time as a family.  What a treat to go to the circus and have fun as a family.  Sadly we had to leave early because we had dinner plans with a former colleague of Andy's.  The kids are already looking forward to next year's circus event!

Celebration

Kendall has a friend here in Jax who she knew from church before we moved away.  Since we've been back, they haven't been able to play because sweet little Emily has Leukemia.  Em got diagnosed about the same time that we moved back.  Due to her treatments and lack of a healthy immune system, we haven't been able to have a play date.  We've taken meals to their family and things to help keep Em busy during her long hospital stays.  Kendall has been diligent about praying for her little friend Emily.  It's the sweetest thing I've heard.  She prays for Em ALL the time - at school, at night, at meals, in the car, etc.

Emily just finished up her treatments and has started the maintenance phase.  She also just turned 5. Emily's family decided to have a birthday party to celebrate turning 5 and that she's finally able to play with her friends and return to some of her activities.  She had her party at Build A Bear.  Kendall was thrilled to celebrate with Emily and all her friends.  

Catching a quick picture with Emily!  I want to put this pic in her room so she can see it while she prays for Em.

K built a dog (surprised?) named Buttercup and dressed it up in some glam clothes!  She asked me to spend the rest of an old gift card on some high heeled shoes to go with it!

Place Your Bets!

Most of you know that we like to head to our favorite burger joint on Friday nights.  This past Friday I decided to go with nachos instead of my typical Amontillado burger.  I ordered the jalapeños on the side so Andy could eat them.  Andy decided to ask the kids if they wanted to eat one.  He typically offers them money to eat olives or jalapeños to get them to try it.  

He offered Riley a dollar to eat one and he agreed.  Poor Ra is trying to earn $150 to replace the broken screen on his iPad so he'll do about anything to earn more money!  He then offered to pay Riley for another one.  Ra got smart though and asked for more money.  He ate 2 for a grand total of $6.  Riley handled it well.  He quickly sucked down some water, but no screams or tears.

Andy then offered to pay Kendall to eat one.  She's smart and said NO WAY!  Dad started to increase his offer.  When he got to $5 for one, she caved.  She at the jalapeño but cried while drinking not one, but TWO glasses of water!  Our waitress felt bad for her so she brought K some crackers.  Poor girl said her mouth was on fire!  As you can see in this picture, holding that $5 made it all better!

Pool Progress...

The pool tile was installed!!!  Getting closer...

Not sure about this color.  It looked more tan in the pictures and in person it looks like white and yellow...Hoping it gets a coat of sealant or something to make it match the travertine around the pool better.  The travertine has tans and off whites in it.  
**UPDATE** - This is the WRONG stone!  It was sent to our pool guy by mistake.  It is going to be corrected!  Whew!

This dirt portion between the porch and the pool will eventually be tiled to create a patio.  It will extend to the driveway along the back porch.  I want a walkway with ground cover and stepping stones from the porch to the back side of the garage where the pool pump/door to the garage is located.  I'm thinking of putting a few palms along the fence (new one is going to be installed) to provide privacy from the neighbors on the west side.  I also want plant some bushes/small shrubs between the pool and garage.  I have this idea that a destressed blue wooden sea horse needs to hang on the wall between the windows of the garage...They sell them at a store around the corner from our apt...

Winter Jam

After seeing the effect the Toby Mac concert had on Riley, we decided to take the whole family to Winter Jam this past Friday.  It's a fabulous concert - great line up and $10 general admission.  We started out waiting in line almost at Everbank Field where the Jags play when the concert was at the Veterans Memorial Arena.  You can see in the picture below just how far it is between Everbank field and the arena!

We thankfully got in and luckily found 4 decent nosebleed seats all together!  That was my fear - either we wouldn't get in the door or we wouldn't find seats together!  The concert started with Colton Dixon, who Riley and I saw with Toby Mac.  He was great.  The next act was Newsong who sponsors the tour.  After them, Plumb came out on stage.  Kendall and I LOVE Plumb.  What a great surprise that she sang my song for Sis: In Your Arms.  That song is so incredibly appropriate for my baby girl from the "curly q's" to the "baby blues."  After Plumb, Andy was thrilled to see Thousand Foot Krutch (or as Kendall calls them, Ten Thousand Foot Crunch).  He was rocking out and both kids were following his lead with their head bobs!  Next was one of my all time favorite Christian bands...Tenth Avenue North.  We saw them in Utah in a very small setting and they were fabulous.  I'm happy to say, in this larger arena, they were JUST AS GOOD!  Loved it!!!  Next up was Lecrae.  Nobody in our family is a huge Lecrae fan but I'm glad that there are artists like him for kids who enjoy rap music.  At least Lecrae offers a Christian version of good rap music with a strong faith message in his songs.  He glorified God with every word he spoke.  The final act was another favorite of mine and the kids...NEWSBOYS!  "God's not dead, He's surely alive!"  What a great show!  

Ready for Winter Jam!!!

Colton Dixon

 Serious light show by TFK!

Plumb - One of Kendall's favorites

One of my FAVORITE bands!

NEWSBOYS!

Kendall got tired as the night wore on, but she loved it.  It will be better for her to wait a few more years to spend money on concerts for her, but she was thrilled about the chance to go and see what a concert is like and hear Plumb, Tenth Avenue North and Newsboys.  Riley and I were standing up, dancing and worshiping during Tenth Avenue North and Newsboys.  It's incredible to see your son raising his hands to worship God as such as young age!!!

CABINETS!!!

Now things are starting to look like "home."  We had a meeting at the house today with the pool man, landscaper and builder.  When I walked in the house afterwards, well, let's put it this way, it's really getting hard to not get excited!

Here's why:

The island is going to have a large piece of granite on it so we can all sit at the island to eat together.

I can't wait to start making meals in my new kitchen!!!

This is the downstairs bathroom.

Riley's bathroom.  You can see a bit of his tile below the cabinet.

This is Kendall's bath.

Upstairs guest room/craft room bath - this bath has a shower/tub with white subway tile...This one is going to be so awesome!  

This is our master bathroom.

I can't wait for our laundry room - I've been wanting a counter over top of the washer/dryer for years!  

Now to start cracking the whip to get the countertops installed!!!  These pictures are a bit grainy because I had to increase the exposure so you could see them well enough - still no lighting in the house.

Stay tuned!  More to come...